


Born In The Heart Of A Star

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Abduction, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cody And Rex Are Twins, F/M, Female Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kidnapping, Multi, Slave Trade, Slavery, The Clones Are Biological Brothers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:47:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26245912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: When their baby cousin Boba is kidnapped, their Uncle Jango recruits them to help him find the little one. It takes them months of searching, but eventually they find out that the boy's been taken to Zygerria, the hub of the slave trade. Unknown to them, the day they arrive on the slave traders' planet, in the Jedi Temple, it's the fifth anniversary of two young Knights who went missing during an investigation the slave training planet of Kadavo.Jango takes Bly down to Zygerria with him, and Cody and Rex head to Kadavo. Four very different worlds are about to meet.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett & Jango Fett, Boba Fett & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex, CC-5052 | Bly/Aayla Secura, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 20
Kudos: 206





	Born In The Heart Of A Star

**Author's Note:**

> Basileus [BAH-sill-eh-OUH-ss] - the Ancient Greek word for "king" or "ruler"; a pseudo-mythical race of humanoid dragons, born in the remains of dying stars
> 
> Also, the Clone Brothers (Jango's nephews via his sister) were born as follows:  
> Cody/Rex [fraternal]  
> Gree  
> Wolffe/Fox [identical]  
> Thire  
> Ponds  
> Bly

The moment Bly stepped foot out onto the dusty roads of Zygerria, he already knew he wasn't going to like this place. Beyond stealing his cousin, the place was hot and cramped, ugly and more than a little desolate in atmosphere. He had no doubt that the richer parts of the city, closest to the palace, would be gorgeous, but was certainly not where they were right now. 

As Jango dropped down next to him, he took in the beaten down and broken faces of the slaves he around him. Many of them are hard-worked and skinny - the word _disrepair_ springs to mind, and it let shim know he's spent too much time around Wolffe and Fox if he's thinking of people in terms of droid parts - with ashen, resigned expressions. Many also bear the marks of electrowhips and heavy metal collars. It was hard to look away from, and it made his stomach turn with disgust - not for the enslaved, but on their behalf. How did someone to this to another living being? Killing them would be more merciful. Ka'ra above, they were someone's _child_. 

"I know." Jango clasped a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. "But we can't save them all. We have to find Boba."

"Right. Sorry, Uncle."

"Don't be sorry." Jango shook his head. "I'm glad you feel this way - means you've got a good head on your shoulders. Your mother and I did right by you."

He ducked his head. Praise had always been a little hard to take, especially being the youngest. It always felt natural that he should reach the same heights as his brothers, even if he logically knew that it wasn't necessarily possible. Cody and Rex, particularly, had the most incredible luck dodging death at every turn. 

"I'm going to head towards the palace. Take a look through the stalls and see if you can spot him, or find someone who's seen him." Jango instructed, and he nodded. 

" _Elek, ba'vodu._ "

Jango squeezed his shoulder once more, then disappeared into the crowd. He didn't look it, but Bly knew Jango was fury on legs. 

Boba was a child long in the making. Jango, as Manda'lor, had put his own desire for children aside to serve his people. For the most part, Jango had not actually been too concerned - his older sister, Arla, had been married since she was young and had many children of her own. It was shortly after she got pregnant with Bly that her husband perished, and Jango had stepped into that void, taking over the role of father to Arla's eight sons (all of whom bore a striking resemblance to him anyway). Each round of sons were less than two years apart, meaning that it was Jango who saw them all into adulthood, and who had mentored them in the ways of fighting and leading. 

But when Bly was just about ten, Jango met a woman off-world. Their affair was a short-lived thing, and when she revealed she was pregnant to him, he insisted that he would take the babe if she would but carry it to term for him. She'd done so, since their dalliance had ended amicably, and when Boba was born, Jango kept his word and took the boy. And Jango had loved him with the same intensity and passion he had his nephews. Arla had taken over the duties as Boba's mother, while the rest of the boys had chipped in where they could, taking care of the boy either in person or financially. Bly had spent a lot of time around the boy when he was really little, until he too was old enough to go out in the world with his brothers and begin a career, earn his colours and his beskar. 

Bly was twenty-three now, having been twelve when Jango returned home with his cousin, Cody and Rex going on thirty-two. Boba was the baby of the family, and it had set off no small cascade of fury when he'd turned up missing. 

It had been Wolffe, Fox and Thire who had discovered what had happened to him, and Gree, Ponds and himself two had tracked down the location of Zygerria. Cody and Rex had returned with their ship, a hoard of new weapons and faked passes to get around the planet freely. They'd all wanted to go, but Arla had been the voice of reason. 

_"Too many of you will draw too much attention."_ She'd said. _"Jango will go, obviously, and Bly with him. He's the quietest one. Cody and Rex should go as well - this situation will be bad, and they'll need all the luck those two can rub off on them."_

That had all culminated in Bly now wandering around a slave market on the lower-class end of Zygerria, looking around for someone who looked like they might take a high-ranking Manda'lor's son and try to sell him off. He wasn't entirely sure _what_ he was supposed to be seeing, quite frankly, and he didn't think any of these small-time assholes were responsible for Boba's disappearance. Even if they were, the appearance of a Mandalorian amongst them wouldn't make them the most talkative anyway. 

Across the sandy road, a young blue Twi'lek woman in scratchy brown clothes was staring at him. She had wide, brown eyes and a set frown, as though she was distractedly worried about something else. Her skin was a light shade, similar to the sky on Naboo, with white dappling down her lekku and a smattering across the tops of her shoulders. She was attractive, as most Twi'lek were, male or female, but there was something else that was drawing his attention. 

He walked over to the stall that she was chained to by the neck, and she watched him come. There was no hint of fear, not int he way she stood nor in the way she gazed at him. She didn't seem to feel much of anything, at least nothing she would express, and he liked it about her instantly. Then his eyes fell on the light attached to the collar, and he noticed that not only was it heavier-looking than all the others he'd seen, even on bigger, more aggressive species, but there was a light blinking on it as well. 

"Hello."

She continued to stare steadily at him. "Hello."

 _Well done._ He chastised himself. _Your talent with women, once again biting you in the ass._ "I wanted to ask you some questions."

"You may, but my master will not be busy for long. You best be swift, he is rather jealous of my attention." A small, devious smirk came to her lips and he liked her even more. "When he can see me."

"I'll be fast, then." He brought up a holo of Boba's face. "Have you seen him. either as merchandise or in the company of anyone here?"

She studied the picture for a moment, before gently shaking her head. "I have not. Most are not seen in this market unless they have been slaves for a while. It is likely he was sold off to the Queen's camps, for training. Unless he is particularly valuable, then he may have gone to the Queen directly."

He swore quietly to himself. That's what Jango feared was what happened. 

She narrowed her eyes. "You know him."

"I do." He put the holo away. "He's my cousin."

"You have my sympathies, then. He looks very young." She sighed and frowned. "Many so young don't make it out of the camps intact. Either their spirit or their body breaks."

"And you? How long have you been a slave?"

"What is the date?"

He told her. 

"Five years, then. To the day." She laid a hand on his breastplate, her gaze drawn to the contrast of flesh on metal, and her expression changed to thoughtful. "Perhaps you can I can be of some assistance to one another."

"How so?" He tilted his head in the direction of her master, bartering cheap jewelry and binders to passersby. "I'm not intent on giving any one of these assholes money."

She shook her head. "I would not want you to, either." That pensive, thoughtful expression got stronger. "I am sent on errands every evening, once the stall is closed. Find me amongst the food stalls. In the meantime, I will speak to the others. Perhaps they have seen your cousin where I have not."

"Can I get a name?"

Her lips quirked up again. "I am Aayla."

"Bly."

Her hand slid off his breast and she stepped back, just in time for her master to look over. The scraggly old Toydarian hobbled over, a greasy, unpleasant smile on his face. "A Mando! Well, I can't say in all my years here I've ever seen one of your kind down here. My wares are this way, if you're in the market."

"No, thank you." He met Aayla's eyes once more, and she was staring back at him.

The Toydarian glanced between them, then shook himself out. "A beauty, huh? I got her at a steal, too. Unfortunately, she's not for sale."

He bit back _Nor should she be_ , then turned on his heel and walked away. He felt her eyes on him right up until he rounded the corner of a large, sand-bricked building.

* * *

Cody and Rex had been dropped off on Kadavo before Bly and Jango headed over to Zygerria, namely because it was going to be difficult as hell to hide it amongst the swirling gas on the planet's surface. Barely anything grew here, and the gas couldn't be relied upon to remain in one place. Caves were also incredibly - and surprisingly - scarce.

The Zygerrians had chosen this particular planet for all of those features, and built their training camps either in the mines they'd dug out themselves and patrolled, or floating platforms built on massive pillars high enough to breach the clouds. Slaves on the platforms worked massive furnaces, run on the coal dug out in the mines. Cody and Rex had spent three days watching them and trying to figure out exactly how the operation here worked. Odds were that infiltrating would go poorly, considering that the slave drivers here were exclusively Zygerrian. They wouldn't even look the part as slaves - no numbers, collars, threadbare clothes or ability to act sad and beaten down. 

"Why wasn't Bly sent on the recon mission?" Rex sighed. "He'd be so much better sneaking in."

"He'll be doing plenty of sneaking on Zygerria proper, don't you worry." Cody replied. "He wouldn't have the good luck we would if he got caught anyway."

"So what's the plan, then?" Rex asked. "Sneaking around with the slaves is obviously no good."

"We have to go the only place they don't frequently patrol and start from there." Cody reasoned, still watching the platform as a Zygerrian trainer threw a Twi'lek male from the platform and lashed the woman to rushed out to try and catch him. 

"The animals?" Rex suggested. "They keep them for the arena fights here, then ship them over to Zygerria when the tournament's on."

Cody considered that, the thought that the animals wouldn't betray them. "Fair. More likely to be cameras there, though."

Rex snorted. "And? We can hide out in the stalls until we can clock the control room, or failing that, just hack the things."

"You got the adapter?"

Rex waved his bracer. "When do I not?"

"I'll leave that to you, then." He returned his attention to the platforms. "I think the animals are stored on one of the higher platforms, so the slaves don't see them or attempt to use them to escape. . It'll be a bigger pain in the ass to get to."

"Maybe, but a better vantage." Rex shifted to the side, dropping down the rangefinder on his bucket to scan the platforms. "And all we need is to know if Boba's here, on the planet. All of these platforms look interconnected, so wherever the hub is, the animal pens should allow us to find it."

"Agreed. Wanna scale it?"

"I think that's the only way we'll actually get up there. Then jumpjet the rest of the way up and take out the sentries."

"Alright. Let's go."

| | | 

"Is it wrong that I'm insulted this was so easy?" Rex muttered, kicking one of the sentries' bodies off the edge of the platform. 

"Now that you've said it, something is going to go horrifically wrong." Cody groused, dragging a body off the upper rails and also tossing it off the edge. The gasses may not hide a ship, but the bodies it would cover just fine. And that was if someone went looking for them. Most of the platforms had alarms that had to be pulled manually, not rotation check-ins. Sloppy, sloppy work from such a massive operation. 

"For an aggressive race that prides itself on being _superior_ -" Rex slung a fat watchman over his shoulders and heaved him over too, "-they're shite at everything they do."

"They break slaves well enough."

He could tell Rex's expression was screwing up even under his helmet. "Oh yeah, because that's such a worthy skillset. Any dolt with enough time and pain can break a person. These fucks aren't special. Lazy assholes that suck-"

"What are the odds they've got a command centre on this thing?" He mused. 

Rex huffed. "Probably good. They're so useless they probably get fat watching screens instead of patrolling like they're supposed to."

Cody wanted to snicker at the sheer amount of contempt in his twin's voice, but refrained. He didn't need Rex even more riled up; his brother took everything so personally. "Let's get looking, then, eh?"

* * *

It was deeper in the evening, and most of the stalls had closed. Only a few of the ready-made food stuffs were still available. The city was cast in a washed-out blue tone by the two moons, and it made the dusty streets feel abandoned and hopeless. 

He was leaning against a building, watching how the changing of the light changed the colour painted on his armour - a metallic gold cast, something that had taken him forever to make just the way he wanted it, separate from Cody's basic yellow - when a gentle, even pace distracted him. 

Just as she predicted, Aayla was walking across the street toward him, that same heavy gaze making the hair all across his body stand on end. He wondered what it was about her that made him feel this way, some otherness to her that he didn't quite understand. 

"Thank you for meeting me. I know it was some time to wait, and quite a bit of faith to have in a stranger." 

"I would say the same on your end. But I'm glad you're here." 

"Less so for me." Her crooked smile was a little rueful. "Mandos aren't the type of patron this place attracts, and you're not here to indulge in the markets anyway. But I promised you an explanation, and you'll have one. Follow me."

Aayla led them to a residential area - locked barracks for sentient wares, he realized - and further into an alley. Between two empty barracks, she finally turned to face him. 

"How do you know about this place?" He wondered aloud, glancing around. 

"I told you, I have been here for five years. My master lives here, a regular fence for smugglers and thieves." She took a breath, melancholy overcoming her. "I was sent here on a mission, with a friend. We were to recon the conditions in Zygerria, report back on if their slave trade had actually resumed or if the rumours were just that. I had offered to take first watch a week and some into our mission, but I was overtired, and fell asleep. The Zygerrian patrol that had been looking for us found us, at unawares. She woke up during my struggle, and managed to free me. She took all of their attention and all of their efforts, and she told me to escape, to flee and report back. 

"I left the encampment, but I didn't return to the ship. I waited for her to defeat them, but she never came. She is a stalwart fighter, possibly even the best, and her hide is nearly impenetrable. I went back the next day and managed to find her, caged and shackled. I tried to free her, but was unable before I was caught, and I was only briefly able to escape their attention. When I attempted to free her again, I found that she had been moved to Kadavo, to their training facilities, and I knew from our excursions there that I would not be able to free her from the outside. 

"I submitted myself to slavery, and was sent to Kadavo as I planned. However, I didn't find her there, and indeed haven't seen her since. I've been looking for her, trying to find out what they've done with her, since I maintain that it's not in their capacity to kill her."

"You _submitted_ to slavery?"

"Slavery's hardest yoke is on the mind." She replied. "The best way to find her was to do this, and as long as I don't loose faith in her ability to survive, I can outlast any mortal chain." She gestured to her collar. "Even one around my neck."

He shook his head. "Why not go get reinforcements?"

"Because then I would lose her entirely." She said, life coming to her at last, fierce and vibrant. "I was responsible for getting her captured at all, and I had to stay with her as much as I could."

"Do you have any idea of where she is?"

"Yes, I do."

He raised an eyebrow, forgetting that she couldn't see it. "And you're still here because?"

"Because I am not _certain_." She frowned. "From what I can gather, she's one of the arena contestants."

"They only use animals in the arena." Even he knew that much - there was a match being advertised for a few days' time. 

"Yes, they do. But sentients are nearer animals than we like to admit." She interjected. "And she is a Basileus."

He snorted. "Basileus aren't real."

"And you're so sure?" She crossed her arms, raising a judgmental eyebrow. "She _is_ a Basileus. Her hair, scales and wings are all copper, and she shines like metal in the sun. I've heard her roar from the stalls when they have tournaments, and to my knowledge she's never lost. The matches are always to the death, they just don't tend to use her unless they have a high-profile guest."

He nodded. "I'll attend it. If I see a dragon-woman, I'll let you know."

"Thank you. In return, I will keep abreast of any news of young Mandalorians being traded."

He inclined his head to her again, then moved to leave the alley and find his uncle. Not that he would tell Jango what he was doing with his time, since getting a slave's help would seem next to useless to his uncle, but they did need to reconvene. 

Aayla's hand on his arm stopped him. "I do have one last favour to ask of you, when you return with news."

"Which is?"

"I need you to break my collar off."

"Why not right now?"

"I prefer to have a plan." Her shoulders set in resolve. "If she's alive, I go to her aid. If she's not, I must return. I won't ask your assistance in either endeavour, I just need the collar off when the time comes."

"I will."

Her posture softened, and she reached up to cup his cheek through his helmet. "Thank you."

That strange feeling thrummed through him again, and he didn't even think about it as he leaned into the touch. "Hopefully we'll both find what we're looking for." He passed her a slender comm unit. "Be discrete. It's already set to my personal channel."

"Thank you." She said again, tucking it away. "I will not forget your kindness."

He slipped from her gasp and disappeared down the street, and she followed shortly after, turning the other way.

* * *

Cody was wandering through the cage blocks, looking at the wide array of wild animals, all hissing and slashing. He was supposed to be clearing the blocks of any more possible Zygerrians, but there didn't seem to be any. He'd left Rex behind in the control room to see if there was anything he could find in their shipping manifests there. 

In Block H, he came across something that blew his eyes wide and made him jump back, copper claws more than half the length of his forearm nearly eviscerating him when he walked passed. The snarling and snapping of the other animals was silenced by the deafening roar, the most massive and aggressive animals falling into silence or quiet whimpering at the sound. 

His comm crackled to life. _"What the fuck was that?!"_

"I think you should come see this." He replied, pinned under bloodthirsty teal eyes. "You're not going to believe it."

**Author's Note:**

> Ka'ra - a mythical council of kings, represented by the stars  
> Elek, ba'vodu - Yes, uncle  
> Manda'lor - leader of the Mandalorians


End file.
